"Sandro!" cried Peaches. "Why do you pretend? I know you--I know. You couldn't fool me now! My dear, I thought that you were dead. But even on the day we got here I knew you--I knew you in the hall, that first moment. Oh, why do you keep away from me like that? Don't you love me--don't you want me? Why do you pretend?" "Don't! Please!" he entreated. "Miss Pegg, I--am just a servant in this house!" "I don't care what you are!" she cried recklessly. "You are Sandy. I know you and I love you." "My God!" he said, the familiar pet name striking home at last. "Don't! You cannot understand my position. I tell you I am a servant. It is some chance resemblance." She switched on the main light then and came nearer, scanning his face closely. His hands clenched at his sides, but otherwise he remained immovable. "You cannot make me doubt," she said at length. "You are Sandro di Monteventi, who was reported killed at----" "Miss Pegg--don't make it too hard!" he said humbly. "Will you not accept my statement and let me go? "No!" she said fiercely. "Because I know who you are--and because I know that you love me. There! I have told the truth!" "It is true that I love you," he admitted. "One need not have seen you for longer than a day for that. But why do you persist I am this stranger?" "Because I know it!" she declared. "You could not prove it!" he said simply. "I don't have to!" she said, going closer. "Oh, Sandy, Sandy, I love you so! I have been hungry for you such a long, long time!" She slipped her arms round his neck. And then for a long while she was not conscious of anything except his lips upon hers, and the blessed iron strength of his arms about her. At length he drew away, just far enough to look into her eyes. "Merciful Madonna!" he breathed. "You are too much for my poor strength. I have no right to touch you--but how I love you!" "I knew it! I knew it!" cried Peaches, wild with triumphant happiness, "you'll never get away from me again, Sandro mio!" But he pushed her from him roughly. "No, no!" he said. "I--you are wrong! You have got to believe you are wrong, even though you hate yourself and me as well for the glimpse of heaven you have given me." But she could not let him go. "Have I got to have any other proof?" she laughed. "Oh, my dear, my dear! Good heavens--what is it?" she added in a changed tone, for he was looking over her shoulder toward the end of the room with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. Automatically she turned to follow the direction of his gaze, and almost instantly encountered another pair of eyes set deep in a white face that stared in at the window. In another instant it was gone, and like a flash her companion had seized her by the elbows and was holding her with a gaze that riveted her attention.